COLLEGE BASKETBALL; A New Star Leads UConn Past L.S.U.

By Bill Finley

Jan. 17, 2006

HARTFORD, Jan. 16 - The leading scorer in the history of California girls' high school basketball, Charde Houston was expected to lead Connecticut to many a meaningful victory. Until Monday night, it had never quite worked out that way. The Huskies had not done anything too impressive this season, and neither had Houston.

That, however, is no longer the case. Connecticut beat a top-10 opponent for the first time this season, in large part because it got a breakout game from Houston, a sophomore from San Diego who broke Cheryl Miller's state high school record.

With Houston scoring 22 points and pulling down a career-best 14 rebounds, No. 5 Connecticut defeated No. 3 Louisiana State, 51-48, at the Hartford Civic Center. The loss was L.S.U.'s first of the season, after 14 victories.

"Charde is coming of age," the Connecticut senior Barbara Turner said. "Hopefully, this game will let her know she can't be stopped. Sometimes I just caught myself watching her and marveling at some of the things she did. I was thinking, 'How did she do that?' "

Houston, slowed by a foot injury earlier this season, had been inconsistent even when healthy. She was averaging 10.3 points and 13.5 minutes a game. Often in Coach Geno Auriemma's doghouse, she has made just three starts this season and came off the bench Monday.

"Whenever I didn't play well, it was a disappointment," Houston said. "I know what I'm capable of doing and it was a disgrace to not come out and capitalize off my talent and allow my entire team to benefit off of it."

On Monday, Houston was, at last, the catalyst for victory. She had 15 points in 12 minutes during the first half as UConn (16-2) took a 30-21 lead into the break. She provided more crucial points over the final 20 minutes.

Connecticut maintained its lead through most of the second half and appeared to be comfortably in front after Renee Montgomery hit a 3-pointer with 3 minutes 41 seconds left that gave the Huskies a 48-38 lead.

But UConn struggled offensively in the final minutes and allowed L.S.U. to tie the score, 48-48, when Sylvia Fowles made a jumper with 25 seconds left.

With 17 seconds left, Fowles fouled Houston, who made only the second of two free throws. But the Lady Tigers could not capitalize. Seimone Augustus missed a jumper with time running out and Mel Thomas came down with the rebound to seal the game for the Huskies. Turner hit two free throws with a fraction of a second left to close out the scoring.

"This was a really big win for us," Connecticut's Ann Strother said. "This is something to get us over the edge. We've been working really hard over the last month and a half and have improved a lot.

"There's a lot we can do to build from this game."

Strother, Connecticut's leading scorer, had a tough game, scoring just 4 points and making 1 of 10 field-goal attempts.

"Ann really, really struggled," said Auriemma, whose team's two losses this season were to No. 1 Tennessee and No. 4 North Carolina, which was ranked seventh at the time.

"She was really tired and she was hurting at the shoot-around. So we tried to minimize her minutes. With Ann having a night like that, it was so important for Charde to come up big for us like she did."

Augustus led L.S.U. with 15 points and Fowles had 10, but both scored well below their averages as the Huskies turned in what might have been their best defensive effort of the season.

The Lady Tigers, who were averaging 77.9 points a game, shot 38.5 percent and produced their lowest point total of the season.